I have a 29 gallon tank with many plants that I just switch over from the eclipse 3 top to coralife 130w and and eheim ecco and have started to develop algae again. Black spots on the edges of my leaves and 1-2mm red hair like algae in the moss. How can I get rid of this. I put media in to reduce phospates and nitrate and stopped furtilizing with kent freshwater. Nitrates are around 15-20 so I have been doing water changes quite a bit. My water is medium to hard and Ive been trying to get my ph level down from 7.2 or 7.4 using acid buffer and alkiline buffer to 6.8. Ive been using co2 diy with the little latter making the eheim co2 gauge green, right in the middle. Ive had this algae problem before, I think it came from to much fertilizer. I used a bleach solution on some plants 20:1 but that killed some leaves. What else should I do. I have one light on for about 10 hours a day and the second one on for about 3 hours also. Thanks, Help would be greatly appreciated

I am only using one light at a time just to keep the light down now, so not to much algae grows. I just got some hornwort and hopefully that will take some nutrients out of the water. I am pulling the leave with algae off. I am going to give the tank a 4 hour nap in the middle of my normal light schedule and reduce the light to 9 hours a day instead of 10. Is there anything else I could do? thanks. what does IMO mean?

I never believed in giving "naps" with lighting, plants need "x" amount of light to complete a days photo process and turning lights off for a period, especially 4 hours, is only gonna make matters worst.

I would suggest getting the tank's equiptment and fertilizer schedule to where it should be or you are in for a long bumpy road to success.

You're using both acid buffer and alkaline buffer? What type of acid buffer are you using? I would recommend if you wanted to drop the pH then only use the acid buffer since the alkaline buffer will raise it. Also becareful as to what brand of buffer you use, because many acid buffers contain phosphate.

The lighting method you discuss is the dupla method I believe. Dupla claimed that the aquarist should run the lights with intervals of darkness to help compete against algae. I believe it went (3) 4-hour diurnal periods interspersed with (2) 1-hour nocturnal periods, but I might be wrong. I had a friend whom used that method with great success albeit it was awhile ago. If you are interested in it I could ask him.

As others have suggested algae is easily attributable to an imbalance in nutrients. I do not know how experienced of an aquarist you are but I personally find 130 watts of light to not be enough for my 29g grow out tank IMO. However, I can see how such a setup could easily get out of hand.

If the algae is serious, bleach is not a method that should be used. Instead try diluted hydrogen peroxide (5 H20: 1 H202). If you have a pipette to directly treat the algae as opposed to pouring it directly in the tank then that would be best. After 4 days of treatment do a good 25% water change.

Another recommendation, which I attribute to helping me keep algae under control, is in smaller tanks utilize Seachem's Flourish EXCEL. It could replace the DIY co2 that you are currently using for a carbon source and does well to combat algae IMHO. 1 bottle should last you 2-4 months.

I learned that there is two types of buffer that seachem makes. The kind I am using is not a phospate base. Thanks for your help. I think my prolblem is subsiding. It still needs more to be algae free. I am just trying one 4 hour light break in the middle of a 9 hour light schedule.

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